One of the goals of Lafayette College is to offer students an opportunity for a combined education in STEM and liberal arts. This was one of the reasons that I chose Lafayette. My Lafayette experience has followed this path with my studies combining film and computer science. In addition to a B.A. in Film and Media Studies, I will graduate with a B.A. in Computer Science. Lafayette has provided me with the experiences and tools to integrate these fields. For my capstone, I will be writing a critical paper on the technology in the film and television industry. As a FAMS and Computer Science double major at Lafayette, the intersection of creativity and technology is really interesting and important to me. In the coming weeks I will be doing a lot of research about the history of the industry. I will also be reflecting on everything I’ve learned over the years to connect my experiences to the technology in the industry.
This is the outline for my paper so far.
Introduction:
- How technology fits in the film and television industry.
- STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) — President Byerly is really into talking about STEAM at Lafayette and I am hoping to get feedback from her on this section.
- Why I use technology in film.
Section 1: Camera
- History of the camera, from silent and black and white cameras, to multi-million dollar digital cameras and drones.
- What cameras I’ve used, Cannons, RED cameras, DJI Phantom drones.
- The future of the camera and how it will change the industry.
Section 2: Editing
- History of editing software, non-linear editing systems and flatbeds to Avid, Final Cut, and Premier. I’ve also read a few articles about women working in the early years of editing, mostly because they couldn’t get the “creative” jobs, so I definitely want to look into this.
- How I’ve used different editing software, Final Cut, Avid, and Premier.
- Where editing is going in the future and how it’s changing jobs and changing the industry.
Section 3: 2D and 3D Animation
- The History of animation, from hand drawing every frame, the crazy realistic CGI. Pictures drawn in sequence also dates back to as early at 5,000 years ago.
- I would like to talk about my time working at Hasbro Animation on the TV show Transformers: Robots In Disguise. I will also talk about the process of making an animated TV show, including script, storyboards, animatics, animation, and editing.
- I will also talk about my use of different animation technologies, including After Effects, and Maya.
- And finally I will talk about how animation is improving and changing the industry.
Section 4: Live Streaming Technologies
- The history of live streaming events. I really don’t know much about this but am curious to learn more. My guess is they couldn’t live stream anything until digital cameras came along.
- I will talk about the different types of live streaming technology, from small online streaming events, like the sports games at GoLeopards.com, to the VMAs or the Academy Awards.
- I have working closely with the Tri-caster, which is the software GoLeopards.com uses and will talk about how this works.
- I will also talk about how live streaming is changing the way we watch TV and use social media, as well as how jobs are conforming to it and it is changing the industry.
Section 5: Show Management
- The history behind show management might be a little harder to find, but I’m hoping to look into what jobs would do this is the past and how they would do it — on paper by hand, or something else?
- For the past 8 months I worked at The Price Is Right, and I became very familiar with their show management software, PilotWare, created by Pilot Peppler. PilotWare is used on many shows including, The Price Is Right, Let’s Make A Deal, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, The Talk, ect.
- PilotWare is known for being the only software that was not compromised in the Sony hack a few years ago.
- Pilot Peppler has been in the industry for over 25 years working on many different shows. I will be interviewing Pilot at a future date to hear directly from him about his work in the industry, why he created PilotWare and where he thinks show management is heading.
Conclusion:
- I will talk about how technology is changing the industry as a whole in this section. How technology is forcing jobs to change and people to learn many new skills that they have to quickly adapt to. I will be tying this all back to the experiences I’ve had working on campus at Lafayette and my experiences working at Hasbro Animation and The Price Is Right while in Los Angeles.
I will also be pairing this paper with different videos/clips/software I’ve created, including:
- Camera — RED footage and drone footage I have taken/ will be taking
- Editing — Videos I editing using Final Cut, Avid, and After Effects while working for The Price Is Right
- Animation — Short clip I will create using Maya Animation Software
- Live Steaming — Videos I’ve filmed while working with GoLeopards.com
- Show Management — Software I wrote with Pilot Pepper for PilotWare (I have to double check with TPIR to make sure I can show this to everyone)
I would love to hear feedback from everyone and if anyone has any ideas of other sections of technology in the industry, I would love to hear that too!